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How does the power outage notification work?

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If a power failure persists at the panel, thermostat, or another AC-powered device for more than 10 minutes, Alarm.com sends a second follow-up notification with information on the percentage of nearby Alarm.com systems that are also experiencing a power failure.  This information helps the customer determine the extent of the power outage in their area.

Example power outage notification:

John’s System: About 45% of customers within 1 mile of this location are reporting a Power Failure as of 5:23pm on July 3, 2011.

Additional notes

  • The search radius varies from within one to 10 miles of the user's system depending on how densely populated the area is. This helps to ensure the data is useful to the customer. 
  • The search is performed across all Alarm.com customers in the surrounding area and is not dealer specific. 
  • The follow-up power outage notification only sends:
    • If the system's power failure is not restored within 10 minutes.
    • If there are enough other Alarm.com systems in the user's area to provide meaningful data. Typically, there are enough systems to provide meaningful data. Cases where there are not enough systems are rare, occurring less than 1% of the time. 
      • The following image shows an example of the follow-up Power failure without a neighbor notification that sends 10 minutes after the initial power failure. 

        power failure with neighbor data.png

Set up power outage notifications

This is a free notification available to all Interactive customers. The follow-up power outage notification sends to the same recipients for the power failure notifications. 

  1. Log in to the Alarm.com customer website.
  2. Click Notifications.
  3. Click Edit on the System Event notification.
     
    Note: The default notification name is System Actions to watch.
     
    • If there is not a current System Event notification:
      1. Click New Notification.
      2. Click System Event to create a new notification.
  4. In Urgent, verify My property loses power is selected to enable power failure notifications.
  5. Verify the notification has the desired recipients. Click Add to add any additional recipients.
  6. Click Save to save any changes.
  1. Log in to the Alarm.com app.
  2. Tap Menu.
  3. Tap Notifications.
  4. Tap Settings.
  5. Tap to select the System Event notification.
     
    Note: The default notification name is System Actions to watch.
     
    • If there is not a current System Event notification:
      1. Tap Add.
      2. Tap System Event to create a new notification.
  6. In Urgent, verify My property loses power is selected to enable power failure notifications. 
  7. Verify the notification has the desired recipients. Tap Add to add any additional recipients.
  8. Tap Save to save any changes.

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